End of an era

• Lavern Jessen

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dakota Athletic Conference Commissioner Lavern Jessen stands next to a Blue Hawk sculpture in front of Dickinson State University’s Badlands Activities Center on Tuesday. Jessen has been a part of the conference now known as the DAC every decade since 1949. The conference is now down to just four teams — Dickinson State, Jamestown College, Mayville State and Valley City State — and is in its final season.
• Jessen's coaching days

Photo Courtesy of Dickinson State University LaVern Jessen works in his office in this undated photo from his days as Dickinson State’s head men’s basketball coach. Jessen coached the then-Savages to some of their most successful years, winning four consecutive conference titles from 1965 to 1968.

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• Great accomplishments of Dakota Athletic Conference schools

FARGO — Gas cost 17 cents per gallon, the first Polaroid camera sold for $89.95 and the National Basketball Association was formed.

The year was 1949. That fall, LaVern Jessen was a freshman at Minot State University. That was his first affiliation with the league that is now known as the Dakota Athletic Conference. Every decade since, he’s been associated with the league in some capacity whether it be an athlete, coach, official or administrator.

That’s eight decades.

“I’ve been associated with if for a long time and I’ve loved every day of it,” said Jessen, the league’s commissioner. “It has been a wonderful ride.”

A ride that is coming to an end. The league — which dates back to 1923-24 in its earliest form — officially will dissolve after the upcoming school year.

“At the end of this year, the DAC will disappear,” Jessen said. “The conference meant a lot to me and I’m not alone in that. I think it meant a lot to a lot of people.”

With just four current members — Dickinson State, Jamestown College, Mayville State and Valley City State — the NAIA won’t recognize the DAC as an official conference for the upcoming year. Those schools will continue to identify themselves with the DAC and the league will give out conference awards. The four schools will be considered NAIA independents when it comes to the postseason.

“My guess is that this conference, since it was originated in 1923 until now, has probably given a very wholesome athletic experience to maybe over a 100,000 athletes; which is pretty remarkable,” Jessen said.

The core teams in the conference — Dickinson State, Jamestown College, Mayville State, Minot State and Valley City State — had been part of the league since its inception in 1923 through last school year.

Minot State isn’t in the league this year, the first time in decades, as it transitions to NCAA Division II. Minot State will join the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in 2012-13. Dickinson State will stay in NAIA, but is headed to the Montana-based Frontier Conference in 2012-13.

“I’m constantly asked, ‘Why is this happening?’ ” Jessen said. “So there are a lot of people who have enjoyed watching.”

From Kenmare, N.D., Jessen played on three conference championship basketball teams at Minot State in the early 1950s. He played for legendary coach Herb Parker.

“The high school teams in those days, they pretty much played in their own areas,” Jessen said. “You weren’t very worldly and when you got the chance to play on a college team, that was huge stuff.”

Jessen was also a success as a head coach. He guided Dickinson State to four league titles (it was called the North Dakota College Athletic Conference at the time) in the 1960s.

“I’ve always had a great appreciation and great love for the conference for what it did for me and for what I’ve seen it do for a lot of North Dakota athletes,” Jessen said. “It gave a lot of athletes opportunities to compete on the college level. I think every one of them sure cherish those memories.”

Lawrie Paulson, athletic director at Jamestown College, has been involved in the conference since the 1970s when he was a student-athlete at Jamestown College. Paulson was head coach of the Jimmies women’s basketball team for 19 seasons and also helped coach other sports before he became the school’s AD.

“It’s going to be really difficult to imagine getting to a place that was better than where we have been in terms of what the Dakota Athletic Conference provided for our athletes and for our coaches and the people who enjoyed going to games,” Paulson said. “The rivalries were there. The proximity was there. The competitiveness was there. That’s going to be really hard to duplicate.”

Below are some ins and outs of the league since 1923, according to Jessen’s research:

-- The conference has been called the North Dakota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the North Dakota College Athletic Conference and the DAC-10 in previous years.

-- North Dakota State College of Science was one of the original members and remained a member until 1989 when they withdrew to join a junior college conference.

-- Ellendale Normal was a league member at one point until a 1970 fire burned the main classroom building and the school closed in 1971.

-- Bismarck Junior College was a league member for several years and dropped out in 1985.

-- Bottineau School of Forestry was a league member in the 1940s and 1950s before it dropped out.

-- In the league’s early years, the school now named Minnesota State Moorhead was a member.

-- The University of Mary in Bismarck started to compete in the league in 1988 become a full league member in 1990 and left in 2006.

-- Minnesota-Crookston became a member in 1995 and left in 1999.

-- Four South Dakota schools — South Dakota Mines, Black Hills State, Dakota State and Huron University — joined with Mayville State, Valley City State, Dickinson State, Jamestown College, Minot State and Mary to form the DAC 10 in 2000. Huron later changed its name to Si Tanka University.

-- Mary and Si Tanka left the league in 2005. Mary left for Division II and Si Tanka closed.

-- Dakota State, Black Hills State, South Dakota Mines and Minot State all left the league after 2011.

-- The Women’s Athletic Conference of North Dakota (WACND) was formed in 1978 and followed the rules of the American Association of Intercollegiate Athletes for Women (AAIAW). In 1991, the WACND became a member of the NDCAC and followed NAIA rules.

“That was a huge, huge step when the women had a separate conference,” Jessen said. “I think the athletic directors felt, and rightly so, that it would be more efficient if we had everything under one umbrella and one set of rules for both men’s and women’s sports.”

While Jessen said it’s hard for him to pick out specific moments or teams, he remembers many of the coaches. Coaches who had sustained periods of success in the league. Coaches like Rollie Greeno (Jamestown College), Hank Biesiot (Dickinson State), Jerome Berg (Mayville State), Bill Osmon (Valley City State), Al Meyer (Mayville State), Herb Parker (Minot State), Wes Luther (Minot State), Roger Huffman (Dickinson State), Pete Stanton (Dickinson State) and Scott Berry (Mayville State) to name a few.

Biesiot, Stanton and Berry are still coaching.

“You think about the cast of characters over the years, the coaches, the personalities of people,” Paulson said. “You can go to every campus and pick out a few … characters who have become legends because of their success and how they went about doing it.”

The league that those coaches helped build, along with the administrators and athletes, will dissolve after this season.

“I think by and large, the fans of North Dakota are very disappointed to see this happen,” Jessen said. “It’s disappointing, not only to me, but to a number of athletic directors and coaches that have been associated with the conference for a long, long time.”

Berry has been the head baseball coach at Mayville State since 1982 and has been associated with the league since the 1970s. He played baseball for the Comets, under Al Meyer, and graduated from the school in 1978.

“You want your league, and to play for and that certainly is a highlight,” said Berry, who has more than 800 career victories. “You just have to change your focus and your goals a little bit. How that will be? Only time will tell.”

Peterson is a sports reporter for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: lavern jessen, sports, dac